“The Suffragents”: Lessons in Allyship

Event Recap of When Modern Men Became Feminists, 11/7/17

Gail Collins, Christoph Irmscher, and Brooke Kroeger came together on November 7 to discuss men’s historic engagement with Women’s rights movements. Kroeger walked us through the history of men who supported women’s suffrage in different spheres such as politicians and academics. She discussed the formation of the United States chapter of the Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage in 1908, and how the movement utilized men in positions of power to further their cause in the last ten years of a seventy-year long struggle.

Irmscher discussed radical writer Max Eastman’s role in the formation and fight for suffrage, as Eastman was a co-founder of the US chapter of the Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage. It was a night of reflecting on how far women’s rights have come, and the people who made that possible. The panelists agreed that studying “the suffragents,” as these male allies were called, can give us valuable insights on furthering civil rights movements and provides us with a template of allyship from which we can learn.

Check out Brook Kroeger’s thoughts on the event here. Experience the full event below: